Svarnadvipa: The Ancient Island of Gold
Sumatra crept slowly and tentatively onto the historical stage. The Indian Ramayana epic (3rd century BC) mentions a Svarnadvipa or "Gold Island" which is probably Sumatra, for the island has rich gold deposits that have been mine since antiquity. A Greek scholar of the first century AD named Claudius Ptolemy wrote that cannibals lived on the five Barousai Island east of India. This is probably a reference to northwest Sumatra-the port of Barus on this coast was famous in later centuries as a source of camphor.
Until about AD 600, foreign writers thought of Sumatra as a forbidding wilderness, inhabited by fierce cannibalistic tribes and wild beasts, but enticingly rich in mineral and botanical wealth. One trading port, located somewhere in the southeast coast, stood out as an isolated outpost of civilization in a savage land. This port, know to the Chinese as Gantoli, maintained diplomatic relations with China between AD 441 and 563.
By the end of the 7th century, several Sumatran kingdoms had established contact with China. These Sumatran courts sent diplomatic missions to China. and Chinese Buddhist monks undertook the hazardous 40-day sea voyage to Sumatra en route to India, bringing back with them glowing descriptions of these kingdoms as flourishing centers of trade and scholarship.
The empire of Srivijaya
The greatest name in ancient Sumatra history is Srivijaya ("Glorious Victory"). In the late 7th century, this kingdom rapidly expanded from its capital near present-day Palembang in southeastern Sumatra, and gained control over the neighboring ports. For the next 400 years Sumatra's history is essentially the story of Srivijaya's golden age.
The name Srivijaya first appeared in AD 671, when a famous Chinese monk, I Ching (also known as Yijing) sojourned in Palembang for six months on his way to India. Palembang was then an active center of Buddhist learning and trade. Yijing states that there were more than 1,000 Buddhist monks in the city, and advised other Chinese monks to go to Srivijaya to study Sanskrit before proceeding to India. Yijing sailed from China to India and back on Srivijaya ships, which were the chief means of transport and communication over this vast distance.
Almost all our accounts of Srivijaya come from records left by foreign visitors. Srivijaya must have had written records, but these would have been written on strips of lontar palm leaves, and none has survived. Faint echoes of Srivijaya voices are recorded on a few stone inscriptions found around Palembang and other sites in South Sumatra. Most were written during a critical period between AD 682 and 686 when the kingdom was expanding fast and consolidating its power.
The Srivijaya inscriptions are all similar in content-containing oaths of loyalty to the king coupled with threats of divine retribution against rebels and troublemakers. One inscription from the island of Bangka mentions a military expedition about to depart for Java. Another from Talang Tuo, west of Palembang, commemorates the founding of a park by the ruler-a Buddhist act of virtue.
-this is that his inscriptions use an add language combining Old Malay with ungrammatical Sanskrit. This is a marked decline from the standard of composition which prevailed in 7th century Srivijaya. and demonstrates thet the ancient traditions of classical learning were on the wane.
The few inscriptions which have been studied do tell us, however, that Adityavarman tried to establish his court in a region which, to our knowledge, had no previous direct contact with the outside world, and no form of government above the level of a federation of neighboring villages. No doubt he struggled hard to recreate the glory of the court life in which he grew up in Java. Fragments of sculpture and architecture remain as mute testimony to his effort, and legends still popular in West Sumatra about contests between champions of autocracy and democracy may echo attempts to superimpose a Javanese-style system of aristocratic rule upon an egalitarian village society.
Adityavarman's last words were inscibed around 1374, when one of his monuments mentions a crown prince, Ananggavarman. After this, a veil of silence descends over West Sumatra, only to lift when Europeans penetrated the area some 300 years later. what happened to this prince? Perhaps he ascended the throne but could not keep alive the traditions his father had tried transplant. By the 17th century. the West Sumatra political system bore little resemblance to the court system depicted in the classical inscriptions of Srivijaya, Malayu and Java.
A Chinese pirates' nest
Even after its political eclipse in the 11th century, Palembang continued to be an important port. During the 14th century, its Malay subjects chafed under Javanese overlordship. In 1370 Palembang took advantage of the rise of the new Ming dynasty in China by sending a Mission to Beijing to request diplomatic recognition. The Ming emperor dispatched envoys to Palembang with documents recognizing Palembang as a Chinese vassal, but the envoys were waylaid and taken to Java, where they were murdered.
In 1392 the ruler of Palembang, a prince whom we know as Parameswara, tried to assert his independence, but a Javanese fleet destroyed the villages on Bangka which constituted his main source of naval strength. He fled to Singapore, where he tired to set up a new Malay stronghold, but he was driven out again in 1397 by an attack by the Siamese. In 1400 Parameswara finally succeeded in establishing a new base at Malacca, which in the 15th century became what Melayu and Palembang had been earlier-the focal point of a triangular trade between the Indonesian archipelago, China and India.
Even then Palembang did not die. According to accounts brought back to China by naval expeditions sent to Southeast Asia in the early 15th century, the Chinese inhabitants of Palembang, several thousand strong, remained behind when Parameswara fled. Left without a local ruler, they chose one from among themselves. Soon his position was usurped by a Chinese ruffian who turned Palembang into a pirates' nest. A Chinese naval expedition attacked Palembang and captured the pirate leader, who was taken back to Beijing and publicly strangled in the marketplace.
After 1430 China turned inward, and contact with Palembang was broken off. When we next glimpse the town, in the early 1500s, it was no longer a Chinese enclave but an important port dominated by Javanese culture. It would be fascinating to know how this transition took place, but unfortunately Sumatra's ancient history resembles less a continuous line than a series of brief dashes separated by broad, gaping spaces.
Until about AD 600, foreign writers thought of Sumatra as a forbidding wilderness, inhabited by fierce cannibalistic tribes and wild beasts, but enticingly rich in mineral and botanical wealth. One trading port, located somewhere in the southeast coast, stood out as an isolated outpost of civilization in a savage land. This port, know to the Chinese as Gantoli, maintained diplomatic relations with China between AD 441 and 563.
By the end of the 7th century, several Sumatran kingdoms had established contact with China. These Sumatran courts sent diplomatic missions to China. and Chinese Buddhist monks undertook the hazardous 40-day sea voyage to Sumatra en route to India, bringing back with them glowing descriptions of these kingdoms as flourishing centers of trade and scholarship.
The empire of Srivijaya
The greatest name in ancient Sumatra history is Srivijaya ("Glorious Victory"). In the late 7th century, this kingdom rapidly expanded from its capital near present-day Palembang in southeastern Sumatra, and gained control over the neighboring ports. For the next 400 years Sumatra's history is essentially the story of Srivijaya's golden age.
The name Srivijaya first appeared in AD 671, when a famous Chinese monk, I Ching (also known as Yijing) sojourned in Palembang for six months on his way to India. Palembang was then an active center of Buddhist learning and trade. Yijing states that there were more than 1,000 Buddhist monks in the city, and advised other Chinese monks to go to Srivijaya to study Sanskrit before proceeding to India. Yijing sailed from China to India and back on Srivijaya ships, which were the chief means of transport and communication over this vast distance.
Almost all our accounts of Srivijaya come from records left by foreign visitors. Srivijaya must have had written records, but these would have been written on strips of lontar palm leaves, and none has survived. Faint echoes of Srivijaya voices are recorded on a few stone inscriptions found around Palembang and other sites in South Sumatra. Most were written during a critical period between AD 682 and 686 when the kingdom was expanding fast and consolidating its power.
The Srivijaya inscriptions are all similar in content-containing oaths of loyalty to the king coupled with threats of divine retribution against rebels and troublemakers. One inscription from the island of Bangka mentions a military expedition about to depart for Java. Another from Talang Tuo, west of Palembang, commemorates the founding of a park by the ruler-a Buddhist act of virtue.
-this is that his inscriptions use an add language combining Old Malay with ungrammatical Sanskrit. This is a marked decline from the standard of composition which prevailed in 7th century Srivijaya. and demonstrates thet the ancient traditions of classical learning were on the wane.
The few inscriptions which have been studied do tell us, however, that Adityavarman tried to establish his court in a region which, to our knowledge, had no previous direct contact with the outside world, and no form of government above the level of a federation of neighboring villages. No doubt he struggled hard to recreate the glory of the court life in which he grew up in Java. Fragments of sculpture and architecture remain as mute testimony to his effort, and legends still popular in West Sumatra about contests between champions of autocracy and democracy may echo attempts to superimpose a Javanese-style system of aristocratic rule upon an egalitarian village society.
Adityavarman's last words were inscibed around 1374, when one of his monuments mentions a crown prince, Ananggavarman. After this, a veil of silence descends over West Sumatra, only to lift when Europeans penetrated the area some 300 years later. what happened to this prince? Perhaps he ascended the throne but could not keep alive the traditions his father had tried transplant. By the 17th century. the West Sumatra political system bore little resemblance to the court system depicted in the classical inscriptions of Srivijaya, Malayu and Java.
A Chinese pirates' nest
Even after its political eclipse in the 11th century, Palembang continued to be an important port. During the 14th century, its Malay subjects chafed under Javanese overlordship. In 1370 Palembang took advantage of the rise of the new Ming dynasty in China by sending a Mission to Beijing to request diplomatic recognition. The Ming emperor dispatched envoys to Palembang with documents recognizing Palembang as a Chinese vassal, but the envoys were waylaid and taken to Java, where they were murdered.
In 1392 the ruler of Palembang, a prince whom we know as Parameswara, tried to assert his independence, but a Javanese fleet destroyed the villages on Bangka which constituted his main source of naval strength. He fled to Singapore, where he tired to set up a new Malay stronghold, but he was driven out again in 1397 by an attack by the Siamese. In 1400 Parameswara finally succeeded in establishing a new base at Malacca, which in the 15th century became what Melayu and Palembang had been earlier-the focal point of a triangular trade between the Indonesian archipelago, China and India.
Even then Palembang did not die. According to accounts brought back to China by naval expeditions sent to Southeast Asia in the early 15th century, the Chinese inhabitants of Palembang, several thousand strong, remained behind when Parameswara fled. Left without a local ruler, they chose one from among themselves. Soon his position was usurped by a Chinese ruffian who turned Palembang into a pirates' nest. A Chinese naval expedition attacked Palembang and captured the pirate leader, who was taken back to Beijing and publicly strangled in the marketplace.
After 1430 China turned inward, and contact with Palembang was broken off. When we next glimpse the town, in the early 1500s, it was no longer a Chinese enclave but an important port dominated by Javanese culture. It would be fascinating to know how this transition took place, but unfortunately Sumatra's ancient history resembles less a continuous line than a series of brief dashes separated by broad, gaping spaces.
